The Hero And An Ending
by WATERMELON-S33DS
Summary: Howard and Randy walk to school one day, they each say a few things thinking it'd make a fun and light hearted conversation, but who knew one word could make it all take suck a turn for the worst? this is an old fic of mine i came across, it got a lot of good reactions on da and tumblr so i figured i'd post it here as well!


"Dude!"  
"No, Cunningham!"  
"Come on! just tell me what you're mad about!"  
"I thought it would be obvious! Even a shoob like you could figure it out!"  
"Well I'm drawing a blank here and maybe I need a few hints!"  
"Ok, fine! Here's your dumb hint! Maybe I'm angry about the fact that my 'best friend' has been abandoning me ever since he got the ninja mask! Maybe he's been putting me on the back burner so he could deal with his own ego and making himself look good!"  
Randy froze and stepped back slightly, feeling a sharp pain travel up from his chest to his throat.  
"Wha...Dude! I'm not ditching you for that stuff! I try really hard to balance out my ninja duties with 'our' time...I mean...I can't just leave people to die when monsters or robots show up! And heck most of the time that I ninja out I end up saving your sorry life!"  
Randy pointed and accusing finger towards his friend. Howard simply looked at him unamused, causing him to shake slightly and swallow hard. Randy felt like he was about to cry and seeing his friend keeping such a rock-hard expression in the current situation was NOT helping.  
"Cunningham!"  
Howard shouted. He took a few steps towards Randy, causing the other to back away and nearly fall onto the ground.  
"I don't want you to be the ninja anymore!"  
He couldn't hold it back anymore, Randy whined as he felt a hot tear roll down his cheeks. Staring into Howard's rage filled eyes almost struck fear into him. He started slowly hating himself more and more when he saw Howard's eyes begin to turn slightly red and glassy from the tears he was fighting back.  
"How-"  
"No! I'm done with you being the ninja! You always act like everything's ok! Like I still have fun while your flipping and spinning and kicking butt! Everyone loves you, nobody even looks at me, including you!"  
Oh, that one left a mark.  
Randy simply sat down, looking down in shame as his friend continued to scold him.  
"We've been friends, and fans of the ninja, since second grade Cunningham...but the second you got the gig as the 'hero of Norrisville' you've thrown all that away!"  
Howard glared hard at the top of Randy's head.  
"I'm sick of it."  
Hearing the hiss in Howards voice...it burned. Randy stopped breathing as his friend walked away. He sat there doing nothing but letting the tears fall freely onto his faded, black jeans. The drops darkening his trousers in small patches that would dry up almost immediately. He breathed in sharply as the school bell rang, signalling the beginning of the school day. Forcing himself to stand up, Randy made his way to class looking down and walking around awkwardly without looking up. Luckily he had a mental map of the school in his head; that didn't stop him from bumping into several students though.

The rest of the day quickly rolled by for most students, except for Randy. He had gotten over his crying fit and now was simply staring out the window in all his classes. He had gotten yelled at by a few teachers for not paying attention. But how could he? He was too busy thinking about Howard. He played the scene in his head over and over again, constantly feeling the same biting and stinging as he had before in his abdomen. By lunch hour he was exhausted and ready to apologize to Howard no matter what it meant. He hadn't even bothered getting himself any lunch and immediately went to work searching for his friend. His eyes lit up as he saw the orange hair from across the cafeteria. He was sitting with 'Der Monster Klub'. Trying to walk forward, he almost felt as if he was gonna vomit, just thinking about talking to Howard again...what if he yelled at him again? Spilled Randy's secret identity as the ninja? No way, Howard wasn't that kind of guy...but he did seem really angry...angry enough to do stupid things like that...Randy began taking small steps backwards.  
"Watch it, Nerd!"  
Bash yelled into Randy's ear as his back made contact with Bash's, causing the bully the loose most of the contents on his lunch tray. Randy simply sighed and turned around ready to deal with whatever punishment Bash would inflict onto him. Luckily it was just a few punches to the gut and a heavy push onto the food covered floor, right where Bash had dumped most of his mashed potatoes and string beans. Randy knew he wasn't gonna eat them and almost felt good about helping Bash find a use for the wasted food. He stood up and wiped off his jeans as best he could, glancing back one last time at his usual-lunch-time-buddy, who seemed to be having the time of his life. Tears filled his eyes once more as his lip began to quiver and he dashed off to the boys washroom.  
Randy had spent the rest of his classes avoiding Howard at all costs, as well as anything ninja related. Luckily no one got stanked and none of McFist's robots showed up. However, the Ninja Nomicon had been blinking and glowing furiously for hours on end. Randy had grown tired of it and wrapped it up in his hoodie, burying it in the bottom of his backpack.  
The day continued to drag on slowly, every tick of the clock silently stabbing and slowly killing poor Randy. Returning home wasn't any easier, he had to greet his mother, who was making dinner, as well as forcing his voice to stay steady. Then it came.  
"Wasn't Howard supposed to come over today? You two were going to watch a movie weren't you?"  
Randy had to pause and breathe as steadily as he possibly could for a bit. Just as she called to ask him again he came up with an excuse and interrupted her.  
"He had to cancel...because of some sort of family emergency."  
Nailed it.  
"Oh, what happened?"  
Oh shit.  
"I...uh...I didn't want to ask about it. I-I mean he, uh, seemed p-pretty me-messed up ab-about i-it..."  
He felt his voice begin shaking as he whimpered the last part of the sentence. Swearing under his breath as his mother didn't answer back right away.  
"Well, I hope everything's alright. Make sure to ask him about it tomorrow though, I'm a bit curious."  
"Right..."  
Randy silently breathed out the word.  
"Did you say something, sweetie?"  
Randy's mother called, obviously not quite hearing Randy.  
"Oh, yeah, I..uh...I'm not hungry and I'm really tired. I-I'm just gonna head to bed."  
His voice cracked and shook slightly as he pushed out the final word.  
"Are you sure?"  
"Yeah."  
"Alright, I'll put some away for you in case you get hungry later."  
"Thanks, mom."  
Randy rushed into his room and slammed the door as gently as he could. Ripping his jacket out of his bag, whipping the Nomicon across the room in the process (and receiving an angry growl from the book). He threw himself up and into his bed, wrapping his jacket around his shoulders and shoving his face into the pillow to muffle his cries. he sobbed for about 15 minutes before falling asleep for what felt like half an hour.  
He had a treacherous nightmare. Everything was going wrong, Howard had been stanked and Randy couldn't control himself or his weapons. Almost as if the suit had been taken over. Randy woke up, trying to scream but not getting anything out. The last thing in his dream had been him killing the monster version of Howard, seeing pain and blood leaking out of his best friends face and body. Tears and sweat streamed down his face. he whimpered quietly and he dried his face with his equally as sweaty arms, attempting to clear his vision. He couldn't take it anymore, he needed a distraction. Groaning to himself as he swung down the computer that was situated underneath his bed. Sitting snuggly into the chair and pulling up the desk. He pulled the blanket off of his bed, wrapped it around himself and pulled his legs onto the chair and in close to his body. He lazily clicked around his computer screen, opening up his usual windows. One for internet browsing, one for the chats him and Howard usually had, and one for his music. After fishing around in the dark for a few minutes he managed to find a pair of headphones that he plugged in and slid snuggly onto his head. He groaned as he looked at the clock. 4:56 am. Great...  
There wasn't much that he could do at that time in the morning. Howard wasn't online, probably asleep, Randy was too tired to watch funny ninja videos like he usually did. He was also pretty sure he watched them all. The only thing he could actually think of doing was scrolling aimlessly through the old files on his computer. It quickly turned into a mission to clean out some of his files and delete the ones he didn't need. An easy task, right? Well, it was until he reached one. A very special one that he couldn't remember. It was titled  
"Awesome Movie Take 1"  
Out of curiosity he opened it up and leaned back, nearly falling over in his chair once he recognized what was happening.  
The bath video.  
It had taken place in the middle months of their 8th grade. So about a year ago.  
The two boys had 'borrowed' one of Heidi's cameras for this event. In fact they took her best quality one.  
Randy had to admit, the video did look good.  
He watched his screen intently as the movie carried on.

Howard and Randy were both snuggly tucked into the bathtub at Howard's house. The water obviously hot from the steam that filled the room bubbles spilled out everywhere as well as covering Howard's face in a clever beard, a large pile on top of Randy's head to make what looked like a top hat. There were several plastic toys scattered about at well. A few boats, dinosaurs, a barbie doll or two, a tiny toy cop on a jet ski. Randy chuckled the himself as he saw his younger self pull a small, plastic ninja out of the water. Pretending to make it swing down and save the drowning barbie dolls from the dinosaurs. Leaving them both on one of the boats, he leaped into the water again after wishing the two 'ladies' goodbye. Howard took the small ninja from Randy and pretended to make it beat up the dinosaurs. Randy, not wanting to just sit there, grabbed the cop on the jet ski and made him ride over, asking the ninja if he needed help. The two figurines joining forces to stop the water dino-uprising. Randy's eyes teared up from holding back his laughter at how bad this movie was. Small giggles escaping his lips as the dinosaurs hijacked a boat (after kicking the barbie dolls off of it) and riding away on it like a couple of robbers. The cop yelling after them. Howard made the ninja fly over the top of the scene and shoot what sounded like imaginary lasers. Randy made small screaming noises as the dinosaurs began to sink in the water, exploding soon after. Bubbles and plastic toys scattered everywhere and the boys threw everything in the air and about the small tub. The 2 laughed and high-fived.  
Randy had to pause the video there. it wasn't to recover from laughter, but tears. He was reminded about how close him and his friend had been. He quickly fumbled about his desk drawers and pulled out a box of tissues from the depths. He usually didn't use them for this purpose but he really needed to. He wiped up his tears and blew his nose into it. Once his vision cleared up he pressed play again.  
Howard and Randy began collecting up the scattered toys, but just the ones within their reach. They both stopped dead in their tracks as the door flew open. Howard's expression changed to a glare as Randy shot his hands down into the water to cover his groin as well as sinking down into the bubbles. Heidi's voice sounded off screen.  
"You two shoobs took my camera! I thought I told you not to touch my stuff!"  
She sure sounded angry. Howard simply mocked his older sister and stuck his tongue out at her as Randy sank deeper into the bath water.  
"And you got it all wet! I swear if this thing stops working you guys have to buy me a new one! One that works twice as well!"  
The last thing that was heard before Heidi turned the camera off was the two boys complaining and shooing the girl out.  
Randy quickly turned around and sobbed heavily into his hands. Hot tears streamed down his face as the corners of his mouth tried to pull down into a pained frown. But they wouldn't go, Randy laughed and choked on his sobs, forcing himself to smile as he remembered and missed all the moments that him and Howard had. They were all great. They were so happy...and not to mention close. Nobody could separate them. Who knew that one of the two boys, mixed with their childhood super hero would do the deed.  
He had to fix this.  
Randy thought about calling his friend but didn't trust himself to be able to speak to the other through his tears and sobs.  
By 5:00 am Randy had sent 50 texts and 100 instant messages to Howard. All of them saying the same word over and over again.  
"sorry"  
"sorry"  
"sorry"  
"sorry"  
"sorry"  
That's all they said.  
He typed out the words  
"I hate it I hate it I want you back we need to be friends again please take me back please please"  
But he couldn't do it.  
He couldn't send them.  
All he could do was whine as he erased the words from the small text box.  
He rested his head on his knees and fell asleep as his hand slipped away from the power button. The last thing he remember from that was the sound of his computer shutting off and thousands of used tissues hitting the ground softly.

Randy ended up waking up late to the sound of his mother calling him. He was sluggish at first until he looked at his phone and saw the message he had written for himself.  
"DO IT GET HIM BACK"  
He nearly threw himself out of his chair, not even bothering to put clean clothes, or his sweater, on. Randy barely remember to grab his bag but the loud humming from the Nomicon made a nice reminder. He rushed out of his room and out of the house simply yelling "bye mom!" to his mother as he ran out of the house.  
Eager to get to school and eager to get his best friend back, he rushed through the streets of Norrisville, not even bothering to catch the bus, in fact he beat the large vehicle there. He ran through the school yard and to the entrance, catching his breath and holding his sides as a slight pain ripped through him. Running that much while being so tired was not an easy thing to do.  
He waited for his friend to show up, smoothing his hair down as best he could as he stood by the entrance.  
He had to bite his lip hard enough to draw blood to keep himself from screaming when he saw Howard walking up to the school. Randy waved at him. The response he had gotten was a painful one.  
"Watch it, kid."  
Howard pushed by Randy with a hard shove.  
"what..."  
Randy slowly looked over his shoulder as he saw Howard walk up to Bash.  
This was it, this was his moment he was gonna swoop in and save Howard from Ba-  
No...  
No.  
No.  
No no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no.  
NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO.  
Bash seemed happy to see Howard. In fact they executed a handshake even more complicate than the one that he had shared with Randy. Howard walked off with the group of bullies. Randy stood, frozen.  
No.  
The Nomicon whispered to him. It seemed like gibberish. The only word Randy caught was enough to send him running through the halls after the other.  
RUN.  
Randy dashed after the other. Weaving in and out of groups of students. He actually leaped over a shorter girl with brown hair tied back in a pony tail. He practically tackled Howard into the nearest janitors closet once he caught up to him. The motion so quick that nobody seemed to notice it.  
"What the juice!?"  
Howard started, sending nasty, hate filled glares at Randy. Randy's limbs ached and tried to fight as he moved to retrieve the ninja mask from his backpack.  
He held it in front of him, as if offering Howard to take it from him and never give it back. Locking gazes with the other.  
"I'm sorry...I'm sorry ok...take it. Take it and never give it back! I don't care! I'm sure the Nomicon can choose a new ninja!"  
To emphasize his statement he threw his bag onto the ground and kicked it over. The red and black book falling out onto the floor. Howard seemed speechless. He looked from the mask to the book and back to Randy's eyes. They were cold and serious.  
"I-"  
"No."  
"What?"  
"No, ok you're not talking your way out of this. We're not leaving until you take away all my gear. Take away my job of being the ninja. I can't stand not being your friend! Remember when we were younger? We used to be so close, and we used to love the ninja. But now look at us. We're barely looking at each other. And it's all because...we both...hate the ninja now..."  
Those last words stung for the both of them.  
"Fine. I'll take the mask."  
Howard ripped the mask out of Randy's open hands, in return the taller boys arms went limp next to his sides. He tried to keep himself from crying at the loss of the best thing he ever had. Well, second best thing.  
"But you know what, I'm gonna give it to the guy who's really deserved it all this time."  
Randy could tell by Howard's tone that he was gonna try and take the duties of the ninja on himself. But a loud yelp soared up Randy's throat as he felt Howard force the mask over his face. Red and black ribbons flew about the small space, wrapping Randy in the protective embrace of the ninja suit. He looked hopefully at Howard, who gave him a nod.  
Sometimes you just gotta say...  
What the juice?


End file.
